Politicians in Barcelona are preparing for a new political battle. Nationalists fighting for Catalan independence have announced that they will organize a referendum this autumn, just as they did in 2014. Other parties claim that it will lead to new court cases because the referendum is unconstituti…

Lecture, COGLOSS lecture

Various projects at Leiden University have been awarded an Erasmus+ grant, an EU funding tool. This is a substantial boost to the internationalisation of our research and teaching.

This research project focuses on the development of a popular national agency in late nineteenth century Amsterdam and the question how ‘ordinary’ citizens imagined ‘the Netherlands’ through the experience and use of their urban surroundings.

From 19 to 21 September 2018 the third annual conference of the Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) will take place at Leiden University. The theme of the conference will be 'Interfaces'.

PhD candidates are encouraged to start thinking about job prospects well before the defence of their thesis. Many PhD graduates find employment in an academic or semi-academic environment.

The Indonesian government has been trying to enforce marriage and divorce laws for some time. These efforts are encountering resistance from both local communities and the Indonesian Supreme Court. PhD candidate Al Farabi investigated where this resistance comes from.

Since its founding, LUC has been a college of educational development and experimentation. Its mission statement identifies the college as “a site of innovation in pedagogy, curriculum design, and student well-being,” and it applies a student-centred approach to learning throughout its BA and BSc degree…

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Starting this academic year (2016-2017) Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Sociology of Law at the Van Vollenhoven Institute will organize the Leiden Socio-Legal Series (LSLS).

In 2025, Leiden University College (LUC) celebrates its 15th anniversary with the theme 'Global challenges, local impact'. To kick off this anniversary year, we have shared fifteen stories over the past few weeks showcasing how LUC students, researchers, and alumni contribute to societal challenges…

Karwan Fatah-Black and Lauren Lauret are co-authors of Geketend voor Hollands Glorie (The Chains of Holland’s Glory) that studies the political and economic connections between South Holland and slavery. The findings of this research will be presented with Dr. Joris van den Tol (Radboud University)…

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

Within the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, research is organised in seven main research groups:

Researchers from five different discplines work together in this interdisciplinary initiative.

From 16 to 23 October 2025, the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA) will host the second edition of Cyber Week. Following last year’s success, we will once again shine a daily spotlight on our teaching and research in the field of cybersecurity through LinkedIn and Instagram. Today’s societal…

From 16 to 23 October 2025, the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA) will host the second edition of Cyber Week. Following last year’s success, we will once again shine a daily spotlight on our teaching and research in the field of cybersecurity through LinkedIn and Instagram. Today’s societal…

Ilektra Antonaki has published her book ‘Capital, Market and the State - Reconciling Free Movement of Capital with Public Interest Objectives’. The book is based on her doctoral dissertation, which she defended cum laude in September 2019, at Leiden University.

The documentary Einstein’s Light by director Nickolas Barris shows in a dazzling manner what scientific breakthroughs resulted from the special friendship between Albert Einstein and the Leiden physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. The documentary premiered at the Leiden International Film Festival on 2…

From 11 to 21 June 2019 eleven students took part on the Honours summer course Dilemma’s in het migratierecht (Dilemmas in migration law).

Mojan Samadi obtained her PhD in 2020 in Leiden and has since remained at the university as an assistant professor. Her research currently focuses on gender and criminal law, with a key question being how criminal law should address femicide.

The 2019 Model ICAO took place from 21-24 May at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal.

On Saturday 25 June 2016, the Europa Institute hosted the 55th Leiden-London Meeting, with the overall title:

Researchers at Leiden University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have launched an initiative to learn more about the experiences of migrants travelling through the Darién Gap, with a focus on forced migration.

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Did you know that research and education in the field of digital innovation are key pillars of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs? Over the next seven days, we are organising Cyberweek on our social media channels to showcase what we have to offer.

Did you know that research and education in the field of digital innovation are key pillars of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs? Over the next seven days, we are organising Cyberweek on our social media channels to showcase what we have to offer.

What is it like to study at the Humanities Faculty of Leiden University? Soon-to-be students of International Studies and Urban Studies experienced a day at university during the Experience Day in The Hague and found out what their studies are really about.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Professor Nira Wickramasinghe will research forgotten lineages with an NWO Open Competition grant, in particular the afterlife of Dutch slavery in the Indian Ocean World.

Recently, the so-called refugee crisis has been framed as a threat for well-developed welfare states in Europe by the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem. According to him, external borders have to be guarded, because otherwise ‘loads of people will come to demand support and they blow up…

Mexico will be electing a new president on 1 July. No matter who wins, there will be little change in the deep political crisis affecting the country. This is the message given by José Carlos G. Aguiar, university lecturer in Latin American studies.

From March 14 to 16, 2018 Prof. mr. dr. Maartje van der Woude organized an international seminar and PhD masterclass on the topic of “Transformative Borders and the Politics of Migration in Western Liberal Democracies”. Both events were organized as part of Prof. Van der Woude’s NWO VIDI Grant “Getting…

Het nieuwe kabinet is uniek, met vier coalitiepartijen en een niet gekozen minister-president. Hoogleraar Staats- en Bestuursrecht Wim Voermans analyseert het kabinet in een opiniestuk voor het NRC, en beschrijft een instabiele en ongekende situatie.

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Danny Steed and Dr. Kubo Mačák as Visiting Fellows of The Hague Program for Cyber Norms at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs from 1 Apr 2019 - 26 Apr 2019.

Whereas most outgoing professors are offered a congress, Nico Kaptein's former students and PhD students took a bigger approach. They treated him not only to a farewell congress, but also to a two-week tour of Indonesia, filled with lectures, and trips.

Between January 11th and 14th the Institute for Philosophy of Leiden hosted the second edition of the Beijing-Leiden Conference in Philosophy, devoted to the topic “Emotions in Comparative Perspective.”

Almost all the western countries were too late responding to the outbreak of Covid. Why was that? Three governance experts, including Leiden professor Arjen Boin, have written a book about the response to the pandemic. ‘Our current system isn’t geared towards identifying and managing a long-term crisis,’…

‘Men must make way. GroenLinks–PvdA voters are sending at least three additional women into the House of Representatives through preferential votes,’ Trouw headlined this week. What would happen if we allocated all seats on the basis of preferential votes? And would we see differences between the pa…

Alumnus Dennis Jansen was recently elected as Youth Delegate at the United Nations. For the next two years, he is committed to the area of Sustainable Development and will discuss this topic with young people.

Jean Monnet is the part of Erasmus+ dedicated to promoting excellence in EU studies in higher education around the world. Jean Monnet Actions aim to build bridges between academics, researchers and EU policymakers. There is an emphasis on the study of and research on EU integration and in understanding…

Conference, Leiden University Nationalism Network

De Roy van Zuijdewijn, researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, wrote an opinion piece on the ongoing threat still being posed by Jihadism in Dutch newspaper NRC.

Dutch talkshow ‘Vier Avonden op Rij’ focused on the fall of the Schoof Cabinet, caused by PVV leader Geert Wilders withdrawing from the coalition. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, called the fall of the cabinet 'dramatic'.

President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid is raising concerns about ceding global influence to China. The Associated Press explores how this shift could weaken America’s soft power, traditionally used to build alliances and counter adversaries.

Scholars from the field of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy have often questioned whether there was substantive difference between international STI policy and science diplomacy. This is hard to answer, but at least we can observe that science diplomacy has had great appeal over the last…

What is the state of democracy in developing and transition countries in 2024? Terrible, according to the BTI Transformation Index.

This year the King’s Speech, read out loud by King Willem-Alexander, was analyzed live again at Leiden University. Scientists, students, and even a hat designer came to discuss the ceremony after the speech.

The Israel-Palestine conflict regularly sparked intense debates in university lecturer Noa Schonmann's classes. She decided to start a podcast with journalist Rajaa Natour to teach her students to have deep and difficult conversations in a nuanced way.